Music Makers #1: Children's Edition

This is the first post in a new series. It will be fun for me to share some of my favourite music with you, and hopefully you'll find some hidden gems!


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You gaze down upon your newborn, sweetly snuggling in your arms as you rock her to sleep, while a soft lullaby plays in the background. As you hum along to Braham's Lullaby, it suddenly occurs to you that your child's musical tastes won't always be so innocuous.

The Wiggles! Elmo!! Barney!!!

It's enough to fill any parent with terror.

I'm a bit of an oddity, never having lost my love of kid's music. I have quite a Disney collection, and probably know as many children's songs as most kindergarten teachers. But while I can sing "The Eensy Weensy Spider" with the best of 'em, I like to think that I have some standards.

I'm a fan of Sesame Street, and I'll confess that I actually like Elmo in small doses, but you won't find The Wiggles, The Doodlebops or Barney in my house (okay, that's a lie. There is a Barney book shoved way back in our storage room).

I've always thought that kids can appreciate all kinds of music. 50s and 60s pop were staples of my music collection as a child, and growing up in Alberta even gave me an appreciation for country music. But while we play many different types of music for our one and a half year old daughter, she still seems to prefer children's artists right now. CDs have to pass our test before they get played more than once, though!

Our daughter isn't a great car traveler, and if you drove with us very often, you'd realize that the phrase I say most often in the car is "Thank God for Raffi!". I loved Raffi's music when I was little, and his music is one of the few things that can calm Claire down when she's really worked up in the car. Thank goodness his voice is pretty soothing for us too!

He's best known for "Baby Beluga", but he has about a dozen albums - all great! He doesn't have any music videos, but here are two YouTube creations:

Raffi - "Baby Beluga"



Raffi - "All I Really Need"



A new addition to our children's music collection is Justin Roberts, and I can't say enough about him! He has catchy songs that kids love, and which parents find pretty funny too. My husband even likes him! Here's a video from his new album: "Pop Fly".



...and a simple little tune from his first album: "You Got One".



Ahhh... children's music for a new generation. Because no one should have to listen to Barney.

Posted in: , , , on August 12, 2008  

2 comments:

  1. becky On 7:47 PM, August 12, 2008 Wrote

    I'm really liking Elizabeth Mitchell lately. She's got a few albums of her own, but I really love the one she made with Lisa Loeb, Catch the Moon. We listen to her a lot in the car. And Jack Johnson, too!

    (here is where I shamefully admit I have a Wiggles dvd at home -- but I only paid a dollar for it, and we watch it very rarely. It's a little bit of campy fun)

    Becky (and Emma)

     
  2. Kirsten On 8:24 PM, August 12, 2008 Wrote

    I love their stuff too! There are a few 'videos' of Elizabeth Mitchell and Lisa Loeb on YouTube that I've burned to a DVD (in the hopes that it will keep Claire entertained for part of the long drive to PEI!).

    Since we're being confessional, I'll admit to a couple of Baby Einstein videos too, which I think we've watched once. Garage sale try-outs don't count. ;)

     

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